


The Mad King's Hiatus

by what_is_a_cybebe



Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter RPF
Genre: Eventual Smut, Freewood - Freeform, I'm not sure what I'm doing here haha, King!Ryan, M/M, Mad King, My first fic, king AU, minecraft au, most likely?, nether setting, thief!Gavin
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-03-12
Updated: 2014-03-29
Packaged: 2018-01-15 10:41:44
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,116
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1301947
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/what_is_a_cybebe/pseuds/what_is_a_cybebe
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mad King AU<br/>Everyone knew the story of King Ryan’s rise to power. And anyone who didn't know of his second rise to power was a plain fool. But no one knew of the time between his regimes, when the disgraced Mad King was banished to the Nether. No one knew of the thief who also ended up in the Nether.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1: Should Have Stopped at 12

**Author's Note:**

> My love of the Mad King Ryan persona, King au’s, and Freewood in general has led me to write this. This is my first fanfic, my first posting, and my first probable smut (though haven’t written that part yet :P). Lots of firsts so please treat me kindly. Constructive criticism appreciated however.
> 
> Notes on fic:  
> I really like the idea of people getting banished to the nether for high crimes – kind of like Napoleon but without living on a vacation island. Just play along with the idea that only one (known) nether portal exists in the overworld and that they can’t be easily created like in actual minecraft.

**Chapter 1: Should Have Stopped at 12**

 

Gavin stumbled along a long outdoor corridor. He was lost within the confines of the castle, having just slipped past the guards. He had not meant for them to see him, hoping to slip in at night while there was a change in guard along the castle walls. He had done so numerous times in the past, day or night, and this would have been his thirteenth break in. How was he to bloody know that the guard schedule now changed every week to deter thieves like him from entering? He had scaled the outer wall perhaps more reckless than usual and landed in a garden nearly straight into a guard’s arms. Remembering all this as it happened moments ago, he thought bitterly how he should have stopped at twelve. Gavin could almost kick himself for his carelessness. Though the wound currently spilling blood down his side stopped him from doing so. It had been a near miracle that he had escaped the guards in the large garden, but he had not been fortunate enough to escape being wounded. That pike had really hurt when it grazed his ribs.

With one hand clutching the injury in an attempt to stem the bleeding, Gavin focused once more on his current predicament. He could still hear the heavy footsteps of the guards closing in. For all his flitting down corridors and courtyards, moving in between shadows, Gavin knew he would not last for much longer. He was a failure of a thief, not even able to steal a couple nobilities’ garments from the washing rooms like he had intended. He was going to die here for some Lord’s silken undergarments. Not even for those because right now he was empty handed.

Dogs began barking, the noise bouncing around the tall barrel-vaulted corridor Gavin was in at the moment. _Focus, Gav_. _You’re going to die to minging dogs if you don’t think of something right now_. _You just need a tall tree or a line to the sewers or something – anything!_

Before Gavin could finish his rallying pep talk, he found himself in an open courtyard with a glowing archway in the center. Gavin knew this courtyard. It was the so called “Banishment Courtyard.” It held the only known Nether Portal in the world and no one had ever come back once sent in. He had watched from the castle rooftops the day the royal court banished the Mad King to the Nether. He watched King Ray read the proclamation of high treason to the bound man cursing the new king. He had seen the purple swirls of the Nether Portal swallow the ex-king as the wild man continued spewing curses and promises of vengeance to the crowd.

Gavin ran into the courtyard, searching for an exit, met only with tall walls lit purple by the portal. Some clock tower in the distance struck midnight. He did not like how the bells’ chime sounded like it tolled for him in this dead end. He glanced back the way he came but stopped in his tracks when he saw pairs of eyes glimmering at him from the darkness. Two dogs emerged from the dark with menacing growls. Gavin stepped backwards, a wrong decision as the movement set one of the dogs in a frantic dash forward. Gavin let out a choked scream as he quickened his backwards steps causing him to fall. He scrambled back on hands and rear, wide-eyed at the dogs fast approaching. The first dog sunk its teeth into Gavin’s leg. Gavin yelled and quickly brought his other leg up to kick at the dog’s head again and again, all the while still attempting to crawl back. The dog gave a pained whine and let go only for the second dog to clamp down on Gavin’s shoulder. Crying out once more, Gavin twisted. He lifted his other arm and socked the second beast straight in the nose by pure luck. The jaw on his arm loosened allowing Gavin to wrench it free with one more hit to dog’s head. At that same moment, Gavin's head become encased in purple. He must have backed up straight into the portal. The world spun as Gavin saw purple swirls and sparks dance around his vision. The two dogs circled the Nether Portal, snapping at Gavin, but his body became incorporeal as he moved dimensions. His sight turned to complete purple and he could no longer feel anything.

The next thing Gavin knew, he was staring out into purple and red before an explosion blasted him out of the portal frame. The swirling purple was gone leaving only an obsidian arch in a land of red and fire. Gavin looked up and saw a giant, white, tentacled … thing floating above making a blood curdling screech as it shot a fireball from its mouth. Before the man had a chance to even flinch at the incoming fire, he was thrown sideways by a sudden impact. He tumbled off a ledge and fell a short drop onto his backside, hitting his head on the rock below. On top of him was crouched another man. Crazed blue eyes stared down at Gavin out of a rugged face.

“Fuck! I was this fucking close!” the stranger shouted. “You! What are you doing here?”

Gavin could only gape at the man crushing him until he felt the pain of everything that had happened rush over his body. He managed a weak “please” before darkness encased him.

 ---

 Gavin woke to a ringing head and aching body. He peered up at a ceiling made of purple brick and glowing yellow cobblestone. He tried to shift his head to look around but even that slight movement seemed impossible. He ran a quick diagnostics on his body. His right leg felt on fire and his right side did not feel much better. His left arm was numb and unresponsive, shoulder and neck throbbing, and his head felt like someone lodged an ax in the back of it. Where his body was not aching or feel on fire it instead felt weighted down. It took Gavin a few moments longer to realize why he felt so weighted. Attempting to lift his right arm caused a metallic clanging. He raised his wrist as high as it could go, right on the edge of his vision, and saw crude metal bands linked around the appendage.

 _Christ._ He was chained down. Panic began to creep into his chest, his breath constricted. He recalled he was badly injured, was trapped in the Nether, and had been knocked out by some insane man. Gavin tried to recall the man’s appearance, only able to bring up from memory blue eyes and a generous amount of blond hair. And speak of the devil, these same features were suddenly filling Gavin’s vision. A gasp escaped Gavin and he wanted to move away from the blue-eyed man. This only led to Gavin harming his head producing a pained inhale of breath and coughing.

“Awake, hm?” a deep voice stated as a hand grabbed Gavin’s jaw, eyes wandering all over his body. “About time. You took over a week and I was ready to give up and toss you into lava. I try to be a patient man but, you know, urges.”

Gavin gulped. He did not know nor wanted to know. The eyes returned to look straight into Gavin’s. They still were crazed looking but they pierced with a sharpness that dug deep into Gavin’s mind. Gavin stared until his eyes watered and it became too much whether from the pain he was feeling or the pain he feared to soon feel. He clenched his eyes shut, unable to turn his head away.

“Tsk, tsk. Should know better than to insolently shut your eyes before your king, subject.”

The grip on his jaw hardened while at the same time another hand was brought to run itself over Gavin’s forearm. Hard and soft were the touches and they matched those icy eyes – one moment soft around the edges, the next piercing. Gavin was certain he was in the grasp of a madman, delusional and believing himself to be a king. Yet those eyes were so familiar somehow, as though Gavin had seen them before. The fog which had grasped his mind was lifting as he sought to remember why the man was familiar. He remembered tapestries and portraits on walls from his first few times breaking into the castle. They held the same blue eyes that he could see now, the same blond hair albeit a lot less of the hair than now. Gavin scanned the man’s face. Under the thick beard and long hair, he could make out the defined features, the raised cheeks, the expressive eyebrows that belonged to castle décor. He had watched the face in those tapestries and portraits burn from the castle rooftops the same day that face was tossed into the Nether. And now he was looking at that face again.

“Mad King Ryan,” Gavin breathed out he could stop himself, never having a good brain to mouth filter. The Mad King’s gaze turned back to him, expression cold. It seemed eternity until he finally spoke.

“I suppose that yes I am ‘mad’ now,” he mused, looking almost amused. The hand on Gavin’s jaw moved upward to his hair. “It's been a while since I’ve been called king. I’m glad people still remember me.” He began to tend to the bandages on Gavin’s head, stroking his hair every now and again. “The fear I instilled in those simpleton nobles still holds root I hope. How can I exact revenge if they have forgotten why they labeled me Mad King?” The bitterness in his voice did not match the steady care he gave attending to Gavin’s wounds with ointment and dressings. Again a hard and soft that all but seemed to define the late king.

Silence fell between the two. Ryan sitting upright above Gavin, staring away and into the distance, lost in thought. Gavin stared up at Ryan, fear still lingering in him but growing calm was replacing it. That calm was shattered with Ryan’s next statement.

“Let’s play a game of hangman.”

Gavin paled as the Mad King turned with a wicked smile and cackled down at him.

 

\---

Author Note: Sorry I made it a... cliff _hanger_ _*_ Maniacal laughter*


	2. A Deadman's Game

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The game of hangman turned out to be not a game on pen and paper like Gavin hoped.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have been revived to write again! No more block. Finally figured out how to make hangman work.

With Gavin still strapped down to the table, he was at Ryan’s complete mercy. Thankfully the once king’s current mercy involved continued tending to Gavin’s injuries. The healing ointments dulled his pain and resealed his leaky wounds. Water was poured down his parched throat. Ryan’s tending had been nice while it lasted. They drove Gavin’s mind away from how he was trapped. The threat of death seemed less likely the more Ryan cared for him. Perhaps Ryan had changed his mind, would release Gavin.  _It’s not too much to hope for, right?_ But the thief could never remain so lucky.

Ryan gave a final inspection of his captive’s body, ensuring that all wounds were fully closed. He let out a hum of approval.

“Looks like you are finally healed all the way! Externally at least….” Ryan stated proudly and with a glint of devilry growing in his eyes. “Now we can start playing.”

Ryan circled him, drumming his fingers along Gavin’s body, again looking into the distance as before, clearly contemplating his next move. Gavin jerked against his restraints more alert as fearful adrenaline coursed through his veins. The movement only seemed to entertain the madman’s playful fingers as they danced on the thief’s flesh.

“Alright,” Ryan said after some time. “I’ve decided on the rules of hangman. The objective is to live. Fail and I kill you… sloooowlyyy”

Ryan dragged his fingers on Gavin’s chest during the last word. Gavin muffled a whine of fear.

“There’s only one rule for you; I’m going to ask you questions and you have to answer them to my satisfaction.”

It took all Gavin’s strength to dare speak.

“A-and if I don -“ he gulped. “Don’t answer satis-satisfa….?” He trailed off, the ability to speak closing off as his mind felt like it would cave in. It would have been embarrassing how he could not complete a simple sentence if he were less terrified.

The Mad King let out a laugh quick and sharp and fitting of the owner’s title, making Gavin shrink back. The king took a finger and jabbed the tip against Gavin’s forehead. He leaned his face right into Gavin’s, excited blue eyes staring into watering green.

“It’s hangman, lad. You hang each part of the man when he’s wrong. You have. Five.” – the finger punctuated the word by stabbing his left arm – “Parts.” – his left leg -  “To.” – the right leg – “Hang.” – right arm. The finger returned to stabbing his forehead. “See?”

In complete honesty Gavin did not see; he did not know what this lunatic was talking about or how each body part of his could be hanged. He quaked under the force of the finger and the fear of the Cheshire grin Ryan held over him.  The thief only knew he did not want to see the Mad King’s answer.

And just like that Ryan turned away, rummaging around off to the side and out of sight. Gavin attempted to still his panicked breathing. It was only a simple matter of answering questions. Just say what his insane captor wanted to hear and he would be fine. _Absolutely fine. Perfectly top_ , the Brit thought to himself, suppressing the screams at the back of his mind that nothing was fine and he doubted that if he made it out of this alive, surely more ‘games’ were to come.

A rope was dragged around his neck and tightened. Gavin would have known it was a noose if at that moment his brain had not completely shut down. His breathing staccatoed, all attempts at calm lost along with hope of living. Ryan was behind the Brit continuing to pull up on the noose until Gavin could hardly manage to breath. _Well I guess he wasn’t lying about hanging_ Gavin thought as he prepared for himself to die. The grip slackened slightly and Ryan stepped around to the front of Gavin, eyes meeting again. The noose still held fairly taught somehow but at least Gavin no longer had to gasp strangled breathes.

“First question.  Who are you?” The tone was filled with genuine curiosity despite the cruelty of the situation.

Gavin took a moment to grasp at what his name was and then form some sort of coherent speech. “My name is Gavin. Gavin Free.”

Ryan rolled his eyes and crossed his arms, clearly unhappy. _Flatter him, you mong,_ Gavin scolded himself

“Your majesty,” Gavin quickly finished. Ryan beamed at the response and relaxed again.

“Oh that is rich. Situational irony, I believe? A man named Free now trapped! Certainly some type of irony. I studied some theater after all...” Ryan sighed before clapping his hands together. “Next question then: why are you here?” This question was asked with a more serious tone, eyes narrowed, and man clearly suspicious.

“Well, you see, um, sire,” Gavin began, feeling honesty was probably the best policy in this situation, “I’m a thief. And I, er, snuck into the castle but was chased by guards and dogs and only managed to escape by falling into the portal. Completely unintended!”

“Hmmmm. I believe you thief Gavin Free. That explains the incisor bites to your arm and leg.” He tenderly patted the two near-gone injuries, worry flitting across his face at the memory the dangers they had posed to Gavin’s recovery. The worry soon left and was replaced by a spark of anger.

“So did you ever steal from me then, thief?”

Gavin gulped, his prayers that that would not be the next question clearly unanswered. “Well you see sire, I did sneak in a couple times during your majesty’s reign –“

Ryan unclasped one of Gavin’s arms from its manacle. The Brit gazed slack jawed at Ryan, his speech stopped. He lifted his arm and flexed his wrist. It felt good to be able to move. He was confused though. Why would Ryan be freeing him? Did he answer successfully just by admitting the truth?

The Mad King quirked one eyebrow up. “Continue, please.”

“Um, yeah right. So I was saying that I did sneak in a few times – ”

Ryan grabbed his hand by the wrist and began tying rope around it.

“Bu-but I ne-never stole from you, sire. I wouldn’t do that. I only stole from the other nobles when there were guests cos it was easier to slip in then. I only took clothes or food or maybe a coin or two – nothing valuable. And, and nothing from you. Never!”

Gavin frantically defended himself, words tumbling from his mouth, voice rising. He watched as the rope was knotted around his wrist. He had tried to move free, but Ryan’s grasp was too strong.

“Sir – sire – what are you doing?” he squeaked.

“I ask the questions here, Gavin,” the king merely stated as he tied the other end of the rope to a hefty looking hunk of material. It gleamed white as Ryan lifted it with a grunt at the effort.

“I know you are lying. And even if you aren’t, you stole from my guests, my servants, my subjects, and therefore you stole from _me_.”

Before Gavin could protest, Ryan chucked the thing out the structure between some purple fence.

Gavin could only watch as the rope flew out the window after the object. It stopped abruptly as it met its end on Gavin’s wrist. An excruciating pain wrenched through his entire arm. His bones felt tugged apart and his muscle snapped. He clenched his eyes and grit his teeth against the pain, attempting to steel himself against it. The pain entered a dull pounding, still pulling against his shoulder. The Brit exhaled sharp, loosening his expression, determined to beat this pain.

“Oh Gavin,” Ryan tsked above Gavin, wagging a finger in front of his face. “How are you ever to win if you can’t even answer three questions correct?”

Gavin held his tongue, bitterness rising in him against the pain and suffering and frustration he was feeling. He could sense tears welling up in his eyes as he glared up at the psychopath.

“Let’s try again, shall we? And please don’t disappoint me again, subject. I can give you a hint…”

He leaned right up against Gavin’s ear.

“Don’t lie and don’t do distasteful things and I won’t have to harm you,” he hissed.


End file.
